Der Fall Fonk: Als Kölns erster V-Mann einen Promi als Mörder überführen sollte

True Crime and Gripping Criminal Cases from Cologne and the Surrounding Area After a dispute between two businessmen, the man tasked with auditing their accounts disappears. A missing person report gets the police nowhere. Several days later, the man is found dead on the banks of the Rhine. One of the businessmen quickly becomes a murder suspect. Because the evidence is difficult to gather, the police employ a former robber as an undercover investigator. The investigation and the subsequent legal proceedings are among the most spectacular criminal cases in the city's history, as well as in German legal history. Even today, the case of Peter Anton Fonk, which is recounted in a new episode of "True Crime Cologne," is discussed in legal literature. The trial of the prominent Cologne businessman became a nationwide media event and ultimately a showdown between the Cologne court and the Prussian king. The Cologne authorities had sentenced the businessman to death in a circumstantial evidence trial. The king had the proceedings reviewed and overturned the verdict. What really happened in November 1816 has never been definitively clarified. Speculation and conspiracy theories circulated throughout the city: Did the prominent man's good connections and cronyism save his life? Or was he truly innocent? Journalist and author Georg Bönisch is certain that the king saved an innocent man's life. The former editor of "Der Spiegel" and the "Kölnische Rundschau" is a guest in the podcast studio of the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger and reports on his research in the "True Crime Cologne" episode. For him, this case is also the first in Cologne police history in which an undercover investigator was officially deployed. Speculation and stories also surround this man: Rüdiger Hilgers belonged to the feared gang of the legendary robber baron Mathias Weber, nicknamed "the Fetzer," who was credited with 180 robberies in just eight years. While Weber was executed after his arrest, Hilgers was quickly released. A court had previously sentenced him to 16 years in prison. In the "Fonk case," Hilgers was not only supposed to gather information for investigators; Cologne's first informant also acted as an agent provocateur when he tried to draw out a suspected accomplice of Fonk in a pub in Kümpchenshof. Ideas, suggestions, criticism? Write to [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) Want to advertise in this and many other podcasts? No problem! For access to targeted podcast advertising, click here. (https://audiomarktplatz.de/?mtm_campa...) Audiomarktplatz.de (https://audiomarktplatz.de/?mtm_campa...) - Stories that stay with you - anytime, anywhere!